More on my fiction writing

October 29, 2013

Phoenix 101: What went wrong

If you think "everything's fine" or that Phoenix has no troubles that aren't common to other cities, this is not your post. Spoiler alert: Everything is not fine.

We discuss problems and challenges, as well as intelligent responses, frequently in this space. A previous column sought to debunk the excuses, myths and lies about the place. But reading the comments on the most recent post made me wonder: Is Phoenix uniquely troubled? If so, how and why?

Sprawl doesn't explain it. What Kunstler calls "cartoon architecture" has befouled the nation from sea to sea. Good civic design was lost everywhere. The best cities in the country are surrounded by soul-killing suburbs, office "parks," malls, shopping strips, parking lagoons and laced up with freeways.

Car culture, per se, isn't the answer, either. Oklahoma City ranks lowest in non-vehicle commuting, yet the entire metro has long backed a levy that has impressively rebuilt downtown. Freeway-mad Dallas also boasts the nation's largest light-rail system.

Political extremism, you say? It's a tempting cause. And yet, Miami and Houston are world cities in red states. Dallas and Atlanta are powerful corporate centers. Austin is a technology powerhouse. Culture also flourishes in these cities of the New Confederacy. Yes, they are tolerant, blue cities, but so is Phoenix.

Nor does racial and class division suffice. Chicago is riven with these, for example, and yet retains and expands its footprint as a world city. The same is true of Los Angeles and other cities.

The "Big Sort," where people increasingly self-segregate like-with-like, is also a national phenomenon.

So why is Phoenix distinct, even sui generis, in its difficulties? Why does Phoenix not make it into this site's aggregation of city successes and best practices? I'll give it a shot. These are not in order of importance, because I'm unsure of chickens and eggs:

1. Phoenix grew very fast, linear and, critically, cheap. Almost all the good residential construction in the core pre-dated World War II (in 1940, the city's population was 65,414). Thus, there were relatively few quality close-in neighborhoods — or ones that could be brought back from near death. Nothing like, say, Eastover, Myers Park and Dilworth in Charlotte, also a "young city."

The mass subdivisions laid down from the 1950s — a decade in which the city grew by 311 percent — and the years to come were easy to abandon and see middle-class residents move farther out, particularly as disruptions hit. Yet they lack the architectural quality and workmanship that would attract a renaissance, as happened in the prewar neighborhoods that avoided demolition and were restored as beautiful historic districts.

2. Downtown and the Central Corridor weren't just nearly abandoned, they were nearly clear cut. I can't think of another sizable city that was the victim of so much vandalism, encouraged by City Hall. Good bones were eliminated: Places that could have provided inexpensive business space and appealing historic living for the creative class. In their place, in most cases, is empty land.

3. The old stewards died off and weren't replaced. In Seattle, Paul Allen has lavished his billions on the city: Redeveloping Union Station as part of an office complex for tech companies, doing the same in South Lake Union as Amazon's vast headquarters, rehabbing the Cinerama downtown, building the Experience Music Project and even saving the Seahawks from being moved.

And he's just one of dozens in Seattle. They could spend their money on real-estate hustles in greenfield exurbia. But they love the city. Phoenix, alone in my study of big cities, lacks these essential angels.

4. Phoenix lost its major corporate headquarters. Coca-Cola has 9,000 employees in downtown Atlanta. Procter & Gamble has about 12,000 in downtown Cincinnati. Phoenix lost Dial, Valley National Bank, Central Newspapers among others, and never replaced them with companies of similar size and local commitment.

5. It was surrounded by mega-suburbs. Glendale is 14.2 percent the population of Phoenix, but that's pretty big for a single suburb. Glendale, Calif., is 5 percent of the city of Los Angeles.

And Phoenix is surrounded by similarly sized municipalities, plus enormous Mesa. Most do not share Phoenix's goals or needs and they actively compete against the city for jobs.

Put it another way, although it is the largest city between Houston and Los Angeles, Phoenix was less than 36 percent of its metropolitan area population in 2012, a shocking change from even 1990.

This might not matter if the center of economic and political gravity had remained in Phoenix. For example, Dallas is surrounded by suburbs with corporate "campuses," but the city and downtown Dallas retain many assets.

Phoenix has lost almost everything, especially in the private sector. It shifted to north Scottsdale — an especially poisonous competitor — and Chandler. The result is veto power over the city thanks to an anti-urban majority in the Legislature and a constant hollowing out of the core.

Here's another element that bends toward the distinctive: The petty mandarins at city halls in the suburbs even hate the name Phoenix. This is nuts. LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Cincinnati, etc. are smaller than their combined suburbs. But their teams are named after the city. The city is the brand in a global economy. Not so, in [We Dare Not Speak Its Name] even though that name conveys such magic, or should.

6. Phoenix has suburbs within the city. At more than 500 square miles, Phoenix long ago lost any cohesiveness. The in-city suburbs are mere subdivisions, often with more in common politically with the East Valley than with the core. They lack any shared history or distinctiveness (as with Venice in LA).

They do act as a brake on policies that would allow Phoenix to punch at its weight. Resentment against a supposed bias toward downtown is especially toxic. Now they have elected council members who are Krackpots, blocking the modest progress seen in the Rimsza and early Gordon years.

7. Phoenix is sliced and diced by wide highways called "city streets." The mile-by-mile checkerboard of major thoroughfares was built on the remains of irrigation laterals and farm plats. Then they were expanded to six lanes or wider without second thoughts or remorse.

A prominent civic planner wondered to me a few years ago why La Grande Orange had done so well while other efforts had failed. A big reason: 40th Street is only two-lanes wide there, a rarity. Few things are more harmful to inviting, walkable, human-scale cities than huge avenues (and I'm not talking about the grand boulevards of Haussmann's magnificent Paris; Phoenix's streets highways are only designed to move traffic).

8. Federal dependency. Modern Phoenix was created by Washington, D.C., with everything from water and flood control to cheap electricity for air conditioning, Air Force bases and Social Security checks to retirees.

Leaders from the 1940s through the 1960s knew this wasn't enough, so they made aggressive efforts to recruit technology and aerospace companies. But this didn't stick: Population growth alone seemed enough.

Meanwhile, aside from light rail (WBIYB), the city never pivoted to gaining high-quality federal assets, such as major employment centers (as in Denver) or research dollars (as in the Bay Area and Houston). And too many Phoenicians believe all this was built by rugged individualism.

9. Lack of political pluralism and engagement. Phoenix is alone among cities of its size (and similar-size metros) in the dearth of non-"conservative" political activism or counter-balancing and competing forces.

Private-sector unions went away when the railroads declined and right-to-work became law. Municipal workers now hold an outsized influence. Hispanics lack any power centers to match their population; Latino organizations are dependent on City Hall for funding, and thus want to keep the peace. The environmental movement is Sandy Bahr and a handful of others.

The intended democratization reforms of Terry Goddard created fractious "village" and neighborhood boards, but these are almost always playing small ball or acting as a veto of visionary projects.

Election turnout is shamefully low. Put it all together, and there's nothing to offset the energy and ardent commitment of the Kookocracy. Or the apathy-ocracy.

10. Real estate became the driving industry. In other big cities, real estate is a consequence of the larger economy. In Phoenix, it is the economy. And it is without imagination or vision. Every schlock building or tract house looks like every other.

Another offshoot is the constant spec development of retail. This pits city against suburbs in pursuit of precious sales-tax dollars, leaving behind acres of blight and empty big boxes, shopping strips and car lots.

Now, with its vast political and economic power, the real-estate machine works against the interests of the city. It fights building a high-wage, creative-class economy to match the city's size, especially in the core. There is not one powerful developer driving the Central Corridor.

11. Corruption without benefits. Chicago is a notoriously corrupt city. It still gets a great city in spite (or because) of this. Phoenix has its own corruption — always had it. But it provides no community benefits as an offshoot.

12. Massive illegal migration. Unlike Los Angeles, Phoenix lacked the economic or social depth to handle the hundreds of thousands of new Latino migrants that arrived starting in the 1980s. They propped up the growth machine, but exacted a huge toll on schools, social services and existing Mexican-American neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, unlike almost every other city of its size, Phoenix failed to attract large numbers of other, highly skilled immigrants. In those cities, such cohorts have proved to be essential to reinvention. Instead, the low-skilled illegal immigrants provided the Kooks with their political lifeblood.

13. Phoenix was never the center of anything. My little farm town was isolated and remained so even as it grew into the nation's sixth most populous city.

Denver is still the first city of the intermountain West, a title it has held since the 19th century. Dallas has been a center of corporate power, wealth and distribution since the 1890s. Houston has long been an alpha world city thanks to the worldwide oil industry and its (federally dredged) seaport. Cincinnati retains the bones of once being among America's most important cities. Charlotte leaped to become the nation's second-largest banking center.

Phoenix merely has a lot of people and a few economic assets that would be impressive for, say, Tulsa. In no category besides housing does it effectively compete against peer cities or metros, especially not in the high-quality, high-wage sectors. Besting Fresno or El Paso is meaningless in today's global economy. So is the number of tract houses or golf courses or how rich you feel in north Scottsdale.

Almost any major city is home to major research universities and elite liberal arts colleges. Not Phoenix, until very late, and really only to satellite campuses of ASU. Philadelphia, the nation's fifth-largest city, is home to Penn and Temple among some 20 four-year universities.

14. Resort culture. Too many Phoenicians don't really love the city the way Portlanders love Portland or St. Louisans love St. Louis. Home is somewhere else. In a resort, anything is permissible, especially the behavior one would never do back home. Connections are fragile to non-existent. It is a disposable community.

15. Bad timing. Phoenix grew into a big city during the worst time for architecture, civic design and place making. Thus, it had few of the good bones from the City Beautiful Movement or the grand buildings of the late 19th century.

Charlotte is the only similar example, growing large after 1960 — but Charlotte had Bank of America's Hugh McColl Jr., an urbanist, who was determined to make a great downtown. And, as stated above, Charlotte has more desirable neighborhoods close to the core.

Phoenix came out on the wrong end of many other bad bets and turning points. More major corporate headquarters didn't naturally follow Greyhound in the late 1960s.

The Come-to-Jesus moment in the 1991 crash didn't cause a course correction for the better. Instead, the real-estate boyz abandoned the Central Corridor and the cluster strategy was allowed to languish and die. Thus, as other cities reinvented themselves (notably Seattle), Phoenix didn't.

These are my best guesses about what makes Phoenix unique among very large cities in its problems. Its size only acts as an accelerant. I'd be interested in your ideas.

I would add one "reason" to Rogue's list even though it's really an aspect of every other good reason why Phoenix's star is fading. The Salt River Valley was not meant to contain a great city. Therefore, the meteoric ascent was midwifed by unrepeatable factors - mostly cheap resources - along with technological advances like air conditioning. It's why Phoenix was a small city in 1940 and, perhaps, the nation's most stunning success story by 1960. It grew, to paraphrase Ed Abbey, like a cancer cell because of good weather and cheap everything. And when it finally exhausted itself from its growth orgy, there weren't the crucial assets in place to sustain it as an important, thriving city. Yes, Phoenix will stay large and even grow. But it won't attract creators or even "producers" (read: hucksters) like Donald Trump. It will continue to attract people whose idea of civilization is Wal-mart, Applebee's, and 12-lane freeways.

I feel a little guilty about writing these words because Phoenix is my home town. I gave up on it very gradually, always hoping against bitter experience that good things might start to happen. During the last boom, I was even excited that condo towers were being built downtown. But when less than 1% of the construction activity in a metropolitan area is downtown, even during an epic final boom, the evidence became clear that Phoenix was unsalvageable. Its economy, at long last, was self-cannibalizing.

I see the damage in greater Portland from too much suburban schlock and not enough "best practices". But Portland exhibits a vital and redeeming feature in contrast to Phoenix: in its metropolitan area, it's where people want to be, where the rents are highest, and where the excitement is most obvious. In metro Phoenix, that would be Scottsdale and Tempe. Phoenix can only hope its parasites don't ultimately kill their host.

The Phoenix orgy is done except for a few late stragglers searching empty rooms for yesterday's orgasms. There's an aching head and a barking dog but the thrill can't be found.

The political culture is now an ominous harbinger. Phoenix's meteoric descent will be spelled by extremists in Bermuda shorts and sandals, barbecuing what remains of the city's once-bright promise. Behold your great city, spectral legions of the Sonoran desert.

Another fine article Rogue. Insightful observation on the resort ethos of Phoenix and one of the things I personally like about Phoenix even though it is a negative quality for the community's quality of life.

Headless, older residents moving into Seattle proper later in life is a common occurrence in King County. It is a nice option for the affluent. Seattle has become so affluently young white that friends who have made the move into Seattle proper claim to miss the diversity of Bellevue.

A recent article in the Seattle Times by a native Arizonan complained about the homeless and of course being from the land of Arizona v Miranda wants a carpet bomb cleaning of the street people.

In the early 70's I woke up on a bus from San Francisco where I'd been living maybe 7 years after leaving Phoenix for school in California. The driver's announcement awakened me and I looked out the window all fuzzy-headed trying to orient. At first I thought that I'd slept through and missed my destination because I didn't recognize anything for blocks until I saw St. Mary's bell towers. I was expecting to land at the old terminal on First St (Best selection of pinball machines in town, btw.) It was the first "no There there" moment of the many since. (Apropos of a recent topic, there's difference between having a fond, fairly accurate, if selective, memory of a place and nostalgia.)
Too much of what I liked about Phoenix is gone; that's to be expected. But most of what's left is neglected and too much of the new is distancing dreck. As a kid and teen I could walk from home to downtown and to school if I didn't ride my bike, which Schwinn took me all over (Maryvale to Papago Park.) These days walking in Phoenix during the Winter is pleasant until I have to cross a major arterial. Then I feel like a Texas armadillo unless I want to walk the quarter to half a mile to the nearest lighted crosswalk. Forget about biking.
The people I know in Phoenix were born and grew up there. I know what they're doing there. What is it about the day to day life that keeps most folks there? When we moved from the Bay Area to Portland 10 years ago it was a difficult uprooting but we knew what we wanted. That first year a bunch of grass-roots urban redevelopment started on Alberta street just north of where we live. About a mile of that street became vastly different ( "vibrant", interesting) in a few years. The process has been repeated on N. Mississippi and is underway on N. Williams. All 3 are less than a mile from where we live. There are probably others. In contrast, after almost 30 years Roosevelt has probably gone as far as it's going to go. It has far better bones than any of the examples here.
The attractions of these revived neighborhood centers are non-essential shops and services, but it wouldn't happen without the restaurants and bars. People here are out in pubs (emphasis on the public) in all kinds of weather. If I'm missing similar areas in Phoenix, I'd like to know so that I can visit them in January.
Please excuse this micro perspective in an excellent macro post.

To quote Gertrude Stein, the problem with Phoenix is "there is no there there." Thanks to our leaders, nothing has been preserved or enhanced that residents can be proud of in downtown Phoenix. Even in the 60's,Scottsdale or Sedona or Flagstaff was the place to go to see 'real Az." When the leaders have no vision,"the people perish." The vision was Park Central, then Thomas Mall, then Los Arcos Mall, then Fiesta Mall, and now Superstition and Chandler Mall, with resulting freeways and subdivisions. There was never any loyalty to Phoenix, just to the newest shiny thing.

If you look at the central portion of the state (bordered by Flagstaff, Show low, Prescott, Wickenburg, and Phoenix, you will notice that it is still, to this day, EMPTY. There is a horse trail that laterally bisects this area and takes about a week to complete (on horse).

I would recommend that anyone who wants to know of the real AZ that has existed from time immemorial, that they take this trip.

I loved growing up in 50's and 60's Phx and being a young adult living all over the state -- but check this stuff out. Its still there. This is what my father and I did for entertainment back in the day.

“Urban designers from across the country will be in Phoenix on Monday to share ideas to improve streets and public spaces.
The City of Phoenix will use the conference to show off two new retrofitted road projects that include bike lanes and public art.
One is at Grand Avenue south of McDowell, and the other is on 1st Street near Margaret T. Hance Park. . . .
Bearup says his department has lost $200 million over the past five years for road work because of declining gas tax revenues.” http://kjzz.org/content/8529/urban-designers-check-out-phoenix-projects

And in this radio listen with Steve Goldstein, I especially enjoyed Lindsay Kinkade and Sarah Sullivan in their discussion on the topic ‘Why Young Leaders Are Breaking Up With Phoenix’. Basically, they say that Phoenix is the land of opportunity, a “tabula rasa” so to speak. They think that people are not getting out and “plugging-in” to what is available. They use First Friday as an example.http://kjzz.org/content/7164/debate-over-phoenixs-creative-environment

headless,
Speaking of Cat Peaks Loop, I hiked near there this past weekend. I can assure you that there were not as many houses crouched up against Usary Park’s boundaries in the 50's and 60's. In earlier times one could smell the dry desert spice and hear isolation; where today there are hikers, bikers and horsemen competing with one another, with the elements and with time.

Side-note: Two new replies to AzREB on the subject of effective government (and efficient private business) and how libertarian critiques hypocritically apply two different standards to the public and private sectors. Here:

For many years, I've had my fill of #14, watching the transplants come and go with no real commitment to the area. Demographic shifts may reduce the in migration . . . in which case the game will change.

Morecleanair, then you would not like living in Washington, DC. ? The urban experts who participate on this blog seem to lack living experience in Global Cities such as Tokyo, NYC or London. In fact, those who have lived in global cities mostly find Seattle and Portland good family towns but not too exciting. Phoenix is interesting in the same way it is interesting to live in Africa or other parts of the developing world with its insane politics, instability and backwardness. Yes, a lot of people move to Phoenix and do not marry themselves to the place, but who wants stupidity for a partner?

@Homeless...
"Phoenix is interesting in the same way it is interesting to live in Africa or other parts of the developing world with its insane politics, instability and backwardness."
LOL that is funny, thank you very much.

I second Petro’s ‘thanks’, eclecticdog. I especially enjoyed the middle article:Next section: Chomsky on how America’s economic model created the suburbs
“None of this [suburbia] is ‘natural’ in any way. It didn’t emerge spontaneously—a magical product of the market. It was engineered for a specific range of interests.”

The trouble with the "tabula rasa" meme is that Phoenix is not a blank slate.

For example, idealists quickly discover that the Real Estate Industrial Complex, Kookocracy and lack of capital and stewards with means results in the continuing toxic trajectory of sprawl and sucking wealth out to the 'burbs.

Move to Phoenix and want to go in on a shopping strip in Goodyear — welcome! Want to make a livable, vibrant downtown? Good luck, and we'll oppose you at every opportunity.

Sure, all that vacant land in the core could see a vibrant city rise upon it, but where is the capital? The high-wage jobs? The will at City Hall to create and relentlessly push strategies for economic development and great civic design? To undo the mistakes of the past? To provide incentives against land-banking and tear-downs?

It's not there. So I salute the Resistance and try to help them — even when they think I am being "negative." But they lack the money and power. The slate is damaged and highly constricted. Sad. True. It's a big reason so many talented people arrive with big dreams and leave with their hearts broken.

Mr. Talton, It seems to me that every small town in the valley has been spending enormous amounts of money stretching their boundaries. It cost a lot more to expand now that strip annexing is not allowed. When these small (now large) towns run out of space, they will, by necessity, focus more on the interior like Tempe has. I don’t know how much more room Phoenix has to grow, but it is far less. I believe that all of the points you outline are probably true, but temporary.

Good point, Suzanne. The overarching message, which the elites refuse to get, is that population growth and land area are a liability long-term. They may profit short-term -- and they do. But without a high-wage, global economy to match the metro's size, most lose.

I share all of the diagnoses here and much of the despair, but all is not lost. Even today there are places that could be turned into something quite spectacular. It's in tough shape now, but the residential area around the state capitol could be transformed into something akin to Roosevelt or Willo. Run light rail west down Washington by City Hall and the capitol complex. Do something with the old fairgrounds (ASU campus, perhaps?), and the Grand Avenue area will come back even further. And someday the Salt River through downtown can be something more than gravel operations and salvage yeards. All of these things will take 10-20 years, but the sooner we start the sooner we finish. Recall how hopeless it seemed when people first started trying to return Roosevelt to its former glory?

Thanks for your comment. My point is not that all is lost. One point is that we must be realistic about the unique challenges Phoenix faces.

And I don't mean to be picky but...Roosevelt has not been restored to a commercial street packed with useful businesses and seamlessly knitted into lovely residential areas north and south, and a vibrant Central Ave. It has been made into something different. Far better than where it stood 20 years ago, and a monument to the hard work of the Resistance. But let's be clear on what has, and has not, been achieved.

And the Salt River is two miles south of downtown. The township was deliberately laid out that way because of the frequent floods, especially before the Salt was dammed. So, no San Antonio Riverwalk for us. The restoration is nice, but it doesn't connect with downtown.

All this points to another challenge: The inability to create critical mass. Things are too far apart, and the capital and vision to create quality place and the incomes and urban sensibilities to appreciate them are relatively scarce for such a big city.

Don't give up or be glum. Know the issues. Thanks to all for their comments.